The video was flamed by netizens for its scripting and poor production, with many labelling it "cheesy"

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has confirmed that it removed a
promotional video targeting the Philippines from its YouTube channel,
after they found that it went viral overnight for all the wrong reasons.

STB released a statement on Tuesday, saying that the video was not resonating well with audiences. The three-minute clip shows a couple from the Philippines taking in various Singapore sights like Gardens by the Bay.

At the end of the clip, the woman presents the man with a pregnancy
test kit, and tells him that she is pregnant. The man then replies that
Singapore always has a surprise waiting for him.

An online manhunt followed after the Singapore Tourism Board today took down a video that was uploaded on March 26

Troops from Mothership.sg, Hardware Zone and other
not-yet-approved-by-MDA websites began posting links to guide netizens
to find the three-minute long video.

Earlier on today (6.45 pm), the video could not be found on most
links posted by Mothership.sg and keyboard warriors of Hardware Zone.

The video was scrubbed off its official digital existence by STB
after many Singaporeans expressed their disdain online. They said the
video has a terrible plot, poor production value and robot-like acting.

read moreSingapore Tourism Board video taken down after it draws ridicule

A video uploaded by the Singapore Tourism Board to its YouTube
channel last month was taken down on Monday, hours after it received
flak online.

The three-minute clip appears to be an advertisement to encourage people from the Philippines to visit the city-state. Titled "See where the world is heading", it features a romantic
couple travelling to Singapore to celebrate their anniversary. They walk
around Marina Bay Sands and Gardens By The Bay, and at the luxury
hotel's rooftop skypark, the woman gives her man a very surprising
present.

Responding to the brouhaha over the video, Oliver Chong,
STB executive director for communications and industry marketing, said
it was produced by Philippine broadcast network ABS-CBN "in an effort to
customise content for this audience".

Singapore tourism responds to criticism of ad ‘so bad it will go viral’, blames the Philippines

Singapore Tourism Board has issued a public statement in response to a
volley of public derision made against a three-minute video for the
tourism body that was circulating on the internet yesterday.

The Singapore Tourism Board has moved to distance itself from the
video, which a local news site described as ‘so bad it will go viral’,
saying that is was produced in the Philippines by the national
broadcaster ABS-CBN.

STB also defended the popularity of the video, saying that it had
attracted 3,400 likes in the first week after it was posted on the
tourism body’s Philippine Facebook page and prompted around 900
comments, “largely positive.”

In response to the
Singapore Tourism Board (STB) promotion video which went viral due to
how bad it was, the STB has admitted that it could have been done
better.However, they also pointed out that the
video was not really aimed at Singaporeans and that it was actually made
by a Philippines network.The video featured a couple visiting
Singapore and enjoying the attractions here and celebrating the fact
that the girl was pregnant. However, it was heavily criticised for bad
acting, bad script and a very fake sounding voice over.read more

S’pore Tourism Board issues response to awfully viral video

The Singapore Tourism Board whose YouTube video that went awfully viral yesterday evening for all the wrong reasons, partly because it was taken down, has responded to the online hullabaloo.

Oliver Chong, STB executive director for communications and industry marketing, said in a statement to the media.

A promotional video by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has been removed after it went viral for the wrong reasons

Entitled “Singapore. See where the world is heading”, the
three-minute video which was uploaded on March 26, was removed from
STB’s YouTube channel on Monday, hours after community news and
lifestyle website Mothership.SG wrote about it in a post headlined “This
STB video is so bad it will go viral”.

“Cringe-worthy and full of
clichéd dialogue”, the clip which features a couple on a romantic tour
of the city as they celebrate their anniversary, is made worse by “shaky
camera-work, poor dubbing, [and] illogical flow of events”, said
Mothership.SG.

The Singapore skyline, it noted, was the video’s “only redeeming feature.” And netizens agreed.

Intended to woo Filipino tourists to Singapore’s shores, a Singapore
Tourism Board (STB) promotional video — which has been ridiculed by
viewers here — has been removed from the government agency’s YouTube
channel because it “was not resonating well with audiences”.

Responding
to the wave of mockery heaped upon the video, the STB’s Executive
Director for Communications and Industry Marketing Oliver Chong
acknowledged “some aspects of it could have been done better”.

The video, titled See Where The World Is Heading, was
produced by Philippine network ABS-CBN as part of the STB’s efforts to
customise content for different markets.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB)
acknowledged on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, that some aspects of its
video to promote Singapore as a tourist destination to the
Philippines "could have been done better." - PHOTO:
SINGAPORE TOURISM BOARD

In response to media queries, STB's
executive director of communications and industry marketing Mr Oliver
Chong said that the video was produced by Philippine network ABS-CNB
in an effort to customise content for the country's audiences. When
it was first shared on STB's Facebook page for the Philippines, the
video attracted more than 3,400 'likes' in the first week and
garnered some 900 comments, "largely positive', added Mr Chong.

The three-minute-long video, which was
first uploaded last month has since been taken down after it caused a
stir online. It featured a couple from the Philippines travelling
around the island visiting attractions such as Gardens By The Bay and
Marina Bay Sands. In the clip, the woman also presented her man with
a gift - a pregnancy test kit with a result indicating she was
pregnant. The man, taken aback, remarked that "Singapore always
had a surprise waiting for me".

The video, however, drew flak from
netizens, who slammed it for a variety of reasons ranging from its
"bad script" to the poor use of voiceovers.

Cheesy, awkward acting has always been the bane of tourism videos, and so are takeaway catchphrases whether it’s ‘Get LOST!‘, or ‘SHIOK’.
The problem with STB’s latest Pinoy pitch is that its catchphrase
(Honey, Look!) has nothing to do with Singapore, and what we’ll remember
it by is not the Supertree Grove or expensive dining in a cable car,
but the image of a pregnancy test kit in a box at the twisty shock
ending.

Having a baby is a reason to celebrate no
doubt, except that this could your last anniversary trip not just to
Singapore, but ANYWHERE in the world once Baby is out. I can only
imagine mixed emotions in the hubby, though what I saw from his
expression was surely nothing but pure ecstasy.So what we have here is not so much sloppy production or bad dialogue,
but a case of excessive ‘storytelling’ and not enough scenes to showcase
Singapore, or rather, the REAL Singapore. The Merlion was brutally
snubbed in this video and not a single face of a smiling Singaporean was
featured. The only food you see here is some atas salmon dish, not
satay, durian or chicken rice. And the couple didn’t even look like they
were enjoying it, more engrossed with surprising each other than
relishing the sights of Singapore from above.read moreJust Imaging That Singapore’s Tourism Industry Goes Without Singapore Tourism Board

Watch the above promotional video clip by the Singapore Tourism Board
and you will think that it’s produced by a group of tourism school
students on their final project.One may think that the Tourism Board has run out of budget for their marketing drives.On the other hand, in the marketing arena it is not necessary that
big budget promotional campaigns will surely rip the intended benefits.
Sometimes, the more you spend the more you waste. It is all about what
makes your target group (s) thick? If this tourism video clip makes
sense to the Philippines market, it makes sense! Though it may lack
elegance.

The authentic versus the fakeIt seems that the Tourist Board is having second thoughts about the
fakes and imitation tourist attractions that are sprouting up in the
islands. With so much money pumped into the fakes, and with minimal
returns, not mentioning that the bigger they are the bigger will the
white elephant stand out, trying to justify their existence, to cover
cost, is going to be a mammoth task. And for the poor guys that are
tasked to promote such fakes and with targets that could not be met, it
is a daunting and stressful proposition.How much more would have to be coughed out upfront to build the fake
gardens in the Marina Bay and how much would be needed to keep the
glass, concrete and steel structures in good conditions and the plants
in them comfortable? How many visitors are needed to be herded to these
fake contraptions to just break even?And why would visitors from the
temperate countries flew all the way here to see temperate plants? With
travelling cost spiraling down, the hot land people would have no
problem flying to the temperate countries to see the real things.read more